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Fact: Pig excreta generated at giant factory farms is flushed into large earthen pits, and the malodorous waste, which bacterial digestion turns to a darkish pink, is later spread as fertilizer—a controversial practice that can also threaten nearby waterways.
Fact: The cargo door on a Pilatus PC-12 facilitates the loading of crates containing endangered animals. With the passenger seats removed, the turboprop’s pressurized cabin can accommodate five of the sturdy units.
Those details came to the fore on opposite sides of the U.S. as volunteer pilots and many others go aloft to help preserve and protect the natural world. Such aviators are typically affiliated with LightHawk or SouthWings, 501(c)3 nonprofits that work with conservation organizations ranging from The Nature Conservancy and National Audubon Society down to local groups to provide media, government officials, scientists, riverkeepers and others with views of the conditions 1,500 ft. below. The pilots volunteer their services and aircraft, while the organizations depend on grants and donations to support their small staffs.
Launched in 1979 and based in Colorado, LightHawk counts on its 150-200 active aviators for “accelerating conservation success through the powerful perspective of flight.” The majority of LightHawk pilots are based outside of the Southeast, which is SouthWings’ focus area. Founded in 1996 with headquarters in Asheville, North Carolina, SouthWings has 74 pilots actively covering 15 states.
Jim Becker, a former U.S. Air Force C-130 pilot and LightHawk CEO, says his organization has a “gentlemen’s agreement” with SouthWings to abstain from poaching pilots or territory. He describes the counterpart operation as a “wonderful organization” and says the two of them regularly “compare notes to see what’s working.”
The organizations mirror each other in most of their missions, such as the passengers they carry and the procedures they follow. They are well known among conservation groups, government offices, journalists, researchers and environmental advocates. When a flight request is made, staff environmentalists evaluate the proposed mission for its likely conservational effectiveness in safeguarding ecosystems, protecting habitats and imperiled species and advancing effective policies and practices, or for its educational value or impact on public consciousness. If the project is accepted, then staff contacts local pilots to determine their availability and interest and assigns the mission.
SouthWings pilots logged more than 100 flights in 2024 and provided some 200 passengers with eyeball confirmation of on-the-ground conditions that otherwise might have gone unseen. After all, airplanes soar over obstacles and can travel easily to remote and isolated locations far from the view of ground-bound inquisitors.
The flights serve to monitor cleanup of spills and toxic sites, document human- or storm-caused threats to waterways and communities, document the impact of mountaintop mining in Appalachia, survey conservation site acquisitions and ensure compliance with proper livestock waste disposal. “We find ourselves very busy after hurricanes,” one pilot said. It is that last role to which the opening fact about earthen pits filled with gross pink liquid refers. Details follow.
A SouthWings mission involved flying a photographer over eastern North Carolina, where numerous large pork and poultry farms—aka “concentrated animal feeding operations”—are located. Its resulting aerial image of two slop “lagoons” helped to make the concerns about such operations graphic and compelling for readers of Sierra magazine last year. SouthWings notes its flights have resulted in the filing of more than 180 pollution reports with state and federal agencies, a record that received national media coverage.
Meanwhile, Becker says LightHawk pilots last year flew 230 missions, one-fifth of them transporting endangered animals. So, to explain the other introductory fact, while LightHawk’s fleet comprises mostly small piston aircraft, it includes four PC-12s, a Beechcraft King Air and several light jets. Because those fly faster, farther and carry more, they are better suited for hauling animals—cheetahs, black-footed ferrets and whooping cranes among them—to breeding centers or for release in appropriate habitats, points often thousands of miles apart.
Becker himself planned to begin 2025 co-piloting a LightHawk PC-12 on several roundtrips between British Columbia and Colorado, where 15 freshly captured gray wolves (see photo) were to be released. He says wolves are “intelligent and adaptable,” and the mission goal is for the animals to form packs and multiply.
If successful, that would help the once nearly extinct wilderness icon achieve sustainability and balance a natural ecosystem—a fundamental goal of both aviation organizations.
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